In recent years, Arab journalists have been taking great
risks to report important stories in a region where war and civil
unrest remain an ever-present threat. Many are operating without proper
equipment or safety training in how to recognize and mitigate the various risks
they face.

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In an unprecedented step, more than a dozen international
news organizations have signed a joint letter to the Syrian armed opposition about
the "disturbing rise in the kidnapping of journalists" in Syria, which has led
many outlets to reduce their coverage of the conflict out of safety concerns.
The organizations urge the Syrian armed opposition leadership "to assist in
identifying those groups currently holding journalists and take the steps
necessary to bring about their release."

Two murdered journalists for the
Africa service of Radio France Internationale, Ghislaine Dupont, 51, and Claude
Verlon, 58, might have had a chance. They were abducted on November 2 in Kidal
in northern Mali, but the vehicle their captors were driving suddenly broke
down, according to news
reports.

Just two weeks ago, I wrote that the recent escapes of American Matthew Schrier and French-American Jonathan Alpeyrie after months of captivity should give hope to all missing journalists in Syria. We now have two more reasons for hope.

Sunday, the Italian and Belgian governments announced that missing Italian journalist Domenico Quirico and Belgian academic writer Pierre Piccinin were freed. They had been missing for five months.

It has now
been an entire year since Al-Hurra correspondent Bashar Fahmi, a Jordanian of
Palestinian origin, and freelancer Austin Tice, of the United States, went
missing in Syria. But the recent liberation of two freelance journalists held
for months gives us some reason to hope.

A new English/Arabic online tool is available for citizen
journalists who have no previous journalism experience or training but are
reporting dangerous frontline stories. It uses animation--a novelty for such
guides--and its arrival is timely.

It is increasingly difficult to document
violations against the press in Syria, let alone hold those responsible to
account. It has always been hard to verify facts within the country. But now,
the sheer number of violations and the expanding list of violators have become admittedly
overwhelming.

At any given time over the past two years, as wars raged in
Libya and then Syria, and as other conflicts ground on in South Asia and sub-Saharan
Africa, a number of journalists have been held captive by a diverse array of forces,
from militants and rebels to criminals and paramilitaries. And at any given
time, a small handful of these cases--sometimes one or two, sometimes
more--have been purposely kept out of the news media. That is true today.

Forces on all sides of
the Syrian conflict that have tried to censor news coverage through violence have
won a round. By sharply increasing the risk for reporters covering the civil
war they have forced news organizations to think twice before sending their
staff to the battlefields. In a worrying development they even have led a
leading UK newspaper, the Sunday Times,
for which Marie Colvin was on assignment when she was killed last year in Homs,
to refuse photographs submitted by freelancers.